Beaujolais Nouveau Day is marked in France on the third Thursday in November withfireworks, music and festivals. Under French law, the wine is released at 12:01 a.m.,just weeks after the wine’s grapes have been harvested. Parties are held throughout the country and further afield to celebrate the first wine of the season.

Beaujolais Nouveau – that much-ballyhooed cherry-red colored vintage that’s best served chilled -- is clearly not for wine snobs. This fresh and fruity red is the result of a quickfermentation process that ends up with a tasty, clean wine that is enjoyed by palatesthe world over.

The Gamay grapes that go into Beaujolais Nouveau are handpicked in the Beaujolaisprovince of France. The wine actually originated about a century ago as a cheap andcheerful drink produced by locals to celebrate the end of the harvest season.

The idea of a race to Paris carrying the first bottles of the new vintage was conceived and this attracted much media attention. By the 1970s, the race became a national event. The races spread to neighboring countries in Europe in the 1980s, followed by North America, and in the 1990s, to Asia.